Police argue that 10 billion Won in party dues was collected through an unofficial bank account while the DLP is protesting the account was unregistered, but not illegal

As part of the police investigation into allegations that members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) and the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) have joined the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and are paying party dues, police investigators are charging that around 10 billion Won (8.6 million USD) in party dues was collected through an unofficial DLP bank account from 2006 to 2009. Attention is now focusing on whether the investigation, which the police initially opened to investigate the issue of party membership and other forms of political participation by government employee union members, will turn into an investigation of the DLP’s political funding. The DLP is vehemently objecting to the investigation, charging that the police are portraying them as having committed unethical accounting practices.

Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo Police Station announced Wednesday that it had confirmed the flow of around 10 billion Won between 2006 and 2009 into the DLP’s official bank accounts from another account established at “K” bank listed under the name of the “Democratic Labor Party.” The police said, “That account is an unofficial and illegal account that has not been reported to the Central Election Management Committee.”


Following this discovery, the police obtained a warrant for the arrest of DLP Secretary General Oh Byeong-yun, 54, on charges of violating the Political Fund Act by collecting party fees and contributions through the unofficial account. The police also summoned as suspects two former DLP accounting officials who had previously administered the bank account.


The police have reportedly requested a search and seizure warrant in order to determine the identities of KTU and KGEU members sending money into the account and a breakdown of their deposits, but their request was denied by the court. Kim Gwang-sik, head of the Yeongdeungpo Police Station’s investigative division, said, “We did not receive a warrant and could not confirm the deposit details for the unofficial account, but we are aware that around 7 million (6,041 USD) of the 5.5 billion Won transferred during Oh’s term as secretary-general is the amount in question submitted by KTU and KGEU members.”


The police suspect there are likely to be more KTU and KGEU members who deposited money into the account, and they are considering making another request for a search warrant. Last year, police tracked financial transactions by KTU and KGEU members who participated in an emergency statement and found that around 270 of them had sent what appeared to be party fees into a particular account at “K” bank.


The DLP showed a strong reaction to the situation at a press conference with journalists held Wednesday at their central headquarters in Seoul’s Munrae neighborhood, where the Supreme Council and the party’s lawmakers are holding an indefinite protest. DLP Chairman Kang Ki-kab said, “The police keep pushing this case beyond all reason in order to suit the administration’s wishes.”


Kang added, “The police have conducted a coercive investigation that shakes the very foundations of party politics, and now that the four opposition parties are cooperating to solve the problem of political oppression, they are painting the DLP as a party that has engaged in unethical accounting practices.”


The DLP explained that while it is true that one of its 25 accounts has not been reported to the Central Election Management Committee (CEMC), it did not intentionally neglect to report the account. Oh Byeong-yun said that there was an account set up in 1998 under the name of “People’s Victory 21,” the name of the party that eventually became the DLP, and that it was recently confirmed that the account was not reported to the CEMC. Oh said, “Party fees are transferred into this unreported account around six times per month in a total of 35,000 cases per year by CMS (cash management service), and we transfer the money deposited into this account to another account that is registered with the CEMC and use it from there.”


Oh added, “If after one or two days the money goes into an account registered with the CEMC, can you really call it an illegal account?”


Oh also announced plans to report the unregistered account to the CEMC on Feb. 15 and submit to administrative measures. The party indicated its plans to continue standing up resolutely against suppression of opposition parties in the future through the four-party cooperation framework.